PROJECT LIBERTY SEMICONDUCTOR FAB

The project relates to the fitting out of a semiconductor manufacturing plant in Crolles (France). The project will cover the deployment of the manufacturing equipment necessary to reach a total capacity of 360 000 300mm wafer starts per year.

The aim is to reinforce the European FD-SOI (Fully Depleted Silicon On Insulator) technology ecosystem by providing energy-efficient, highly performant and secure/trustworthy components to key industrial sectors. It will thereby reinforce the European twin agenda of digitalisation and decarbonisation.

The project contributes to the Public Policy Goal Innovation, Digital and Human Capital - Innovation and Digitalisation. It concerns private sector investments in innovative production lines. The project has been specifically designed as a First of a Kind (FoaK) project to support the objectives of the recently introduced European Chips Act to "bolster Europe's competitiveness and resilience in semiconductor technologies and applications and help achieve both the digital and green transition." The project will lead to the development and deployment of innovative product and process technologies. It will help to further develop relevant knowledge, skills and competences, strengthen the technological edge and increase collaboration between market players, with substantial positive externalities that will lead to economic returns to society that exceed those to the private investor.

The corporate loan from the Bank will offer an attractive tenor that will cover the project economic life (implementation period included).

This substantial tenor for a corporate loan combined with the length of the disbursement period are features offered by the Bank that have high added value for the client and are considered instrumental in the attractiveness of the EIB product. The EIB financing would send a strong message of reliance to the market and is expecting to play a catalyst effect on both the debt and the equity market for the financing of a flagship project in Europe for the semi-conductors industry

Semiconductor research, development and innovation(RDI) as well as manufacturing facilities are not specifically covered by Annexes I & II of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Directive 2014/52/EU (amending the Directive 2011/92/EU) and therefore the project is not subject to mandatory EIA.

The promoter has been assessed by the EIB as being a private company not being subject to EU rules on public procurement or concessions.